1. Field of the Invention: p The invention relates to devices for safely removing surgical blades from scalpel handles.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
The typical commercially available surgical blade has a sharpened tip and cutting edge and a shank extending to the rear portion of the blade. An elongated aperture in the shank receives a mating elongated boss on the forward tip portion of a scalpel handle. The aperture of the blade has a widened rear portion and a narrow forward portion to facilitate engagement of an undercut groove portion of the boss with the narrow portion of the blade aperture after insertion of the boss into the widened rear portion of the aperture. When the boss is completely inserted within the blade aperture, the rear edge of the aperture snaps over the rear portion of the boss, locking the blade to the handle. To remove the blade from the handle, the rear edge of the blade must be lifted away from the boss to allow the handle to be drawn away from the blade so that the undercut portion of the boss becomes disengaged from the narrow portion of the blade aperture.
Hand removal of surgical blades from scalpel handles is time consuming and unsafe. Numerous devices have been proposed to accomplish rapid and safe removal of surgical blades from scalpel handles and for providing convenient receptacles for storing used blades. However, all of the known devices for removing surgical blades require an undue amount of effort, care, and concentration by the user, so the unsafe practice of removing surgical blades from handles by hand continues to be used. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,106,620 discloses, in FIGS. 6A and 6B, the use of a device including an internally mounted notched retaining device. The surgical blade and the boss portion of the handle are inserted into the device through a small hole. The handle is manipulated so that the rear end of the blade slips beneath outwardly projecting ears of the retaining device. The handle then is manipulated to lift the rear portion of the boss from the rear portion of the blade aperture and withdraw the boss from the blade aperture. A great deal of difficulty is experienced in slipping the rear portion of the blade beneath the ears of the retaining element because the rear edge of a common surgical blade abuts a widened portion of the handle. Therefore, the device of U.S. Pat. No. 4,106,620 is generally unsatisfactory.
An undue amount of care and attention also is required by a user to effectively and safely use the blade removing devices shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,120,397; 4,180,162 and 4,168,777. The device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,168,777 requires that the scalpel handle be precisely aligned with the body of the blade removing/receiving device to ensure that the edge of the shank of the scalpel blade properly engages a flange which retains the blade as the scalpel handle is withdrawn. In the device of U.S. Pat. No. 4,120,396, the scalpel blade must be carefully aligned with the body of the blade removing/receiving device as the blade is inserted therein, and the orientation of the handle relative to the body of the blade removing/receiving device must be precisely varied and at the same time a member having extensions for separating the shank of the blade from the blade engaging boss must be depressed in order to cause the shank of the blade to engage a retaining member as the handle is withdrawn. In the device of U.S. Pat. No. 4,180,162, the scalpel must be deployed to insert the blade into the blade removing/receiving device until the tip of the blade is engaged between an internal boss and a rounded internal corner; then the handle is moved to the right so that the shank of the blade engages an internal blade disengaging projection which causes the rear edge of the shank to engage a retaining member as the scalpel handle is withdrawn. None of the above-mentioned surgical blade removing/receptacle devices have found widespread use.